Season Two of SouthLAnd Premieres on TNT

Amaury Nolasco is Detective Rene Cordero

Nice Boy of the Week: Ben McKenzie

Ben McKenzie

With the premiere of SouthLAnd’s second season on TNT, how could we not vote for Ben McKenzie as our Nice Boy for this week? Ben plays Officer Ben Sherman on SouthLAnd, but he is best known for his role as Ryan Atwood on The O.C. He appeared in 88 Minutes in 2007 and in 2005 made his feature film debut in Junebug, with Amy Adams. Other television credits include JAG and The District.

Ben garnered multiple Teen Choice Awards for his role on The O.C., as well as the Amanda Award for Outstanding Performance in Feature Film: Junebug and BRAVO Gold Otto (Germany) for Best Male Actor: The O.C.

Although Ben majored in Economics and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, he got into acting during his first few years there. He moved to New York where acting opportunities were more numerous, and landed a role in the off-Broadway play Life Is A Dream. From there, Ben moved to L.A. and began his O.C. days. The rest is history.

Want to catch up on season one of “SouthLAnd”? Go here to see how!

Welcome Back, “Leverage”!

LEVERAGE returns with an all-new season filled with heists from TV’s favorite team of thieves played by Timothy Hutton, Christian Kane, Jeri Ryan and more. See LEVERAGE only on TNT starting Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 10/9c. Watch the preview clip!

Lineup for Leverage, Returning Jan. 13

It feels like forever since the last episode of Leverage aired and I have missed Nate and the gang. TNT has released some niblets for us to chew on until Jan. 13th, when the series returns to finish out its second season.

Jeri Ryan returns as Tara Cole, filling in for Sophie while she’s trying to deal with some personal issues (aka: Gina Bellman took some time off to have her baby). Mark Sheppard returns as Sterling to irritate the team once again. And Kari Matchett as Nate’s ex, Maggie, needs some help.

Beginning with “The Runway Job”, in order to take down an oppressive sweatshop owner, the LEVERAGE team infiltrates the fashion world. (Premieres Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 10:00 PM)

The remaining episodes fall out as follows:

“The Bottle Job” – Premieres Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 10:00 PM
The LEVERAGE team runs a high-tech version of a classic con on a predatory loan shark in order to save McRory’s bar.

“The Zanzibar Marketplace Job” – Premieres Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 10:00 PM
The team is forced to work with their old enemy Sterling in order to free Nate’s ex-wife, Maggie (guest star Kari Matchett) from a Ukrainian jail and clear her name.

“The Future Job” – Premieres Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 10:00 PM
The team goes after a con man masquerading as a psychic medium (guest star Luke Perry) in order to drain the life savings of his bereaved clients.

“The Three Strikes Job” – Premieres Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 10:00 PM
While trying to take down a corrupt local mayor exploiting his love of baseball, the LEVERAGE team runs into an unexpected complication.

“The Maltese Falcon Job” – Premieres Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 10:00 PM
Surrounded by FBI, the team decides to hide in plain sight, while continuing to take down the corrupt mayor and his gunrunning partner. Little do they suspect that Nate has a different endgame in mind for them all.

Check out our gallery for episode photos.
(Source.)

Nice Boy of the Week: Corey Reynolds

Corey Reynolds is Sgt. David Gabriel in "The Closer"

As fans of the hot TNT crime series The Closer know, Sgt. Gabriel is the one team member that Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) always seemed to take an interest in. In fact, she appears to mentor him much of the time. We’ve taken an interest in him as well. So, although it’s a bit late this week, give it up for our new Nice Boy of the Week, Corey Reynolds.

Hailng from Richmond, Virginia, Corey burst on the scene with his role as Seaweed in the Broadway hit, Hairspray, earning for himself a Tony Award nomination and a nom for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

Corey has appeared in roles on Without A Trace, The Guardian, CSI: Miami, Navy NCIS and Private Practice, as well as the film The Terminal.

Keep your eyes on this talented cutie. He’s only just beginning!

Nice Boy of the Week: Aldis Hodge

Aldis Hodge

With the second season of Leverage coming to a close, we were anxious to announce this week’s Nice Boy, Aldis Hodge. We have visited the Leverage pool before for our Nice Boy and we simply couldn’t leave Aldis out.

Aldis often appears in various television shows, some are Nice Girls favorites: Bones, Supernatural, Friday Night Lights, Castle and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On the big screen, his credits include Die Hard with a Vengeance, Bed of Roses, Big Momma’s House, The Ladykillers, American Dreamz, and Red Sands. Aldis is certainly tearing up the tube these days along with his brother, Edwin Hodge.

Aldis Hodge started his acting career at the age of three, when he went on a print job with his brother and was chosen for an ad in Essence magazine. Hodge was doing print ads and commercials when he was bitten by the acting bug. At the age of 9, Hodge was cast in the Tony-winning revival of Showboat on Broadway. The rest is history. In addition to acting, Hodge writes, paints and attends the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.

On Leverage, Aldis plays the Hacker, Alec Hardison, a brilliant technical wizard with just enough snark to qualify him as this week’s Nice Boy.

(Source for bio: Wikipedia and TNT.)

Ready For “Leverage” Finale?

Is it me or did this season of Leverage fly by really fast? I can’t believe we are already at the finale. Tonight’s episode, The Lost Heir Job, features the wonderful Jeri Ryan debuting in a recurring role as Tara. Watch the season two finale tonight at 9/8 Central time, on TNT, to find out more about her. Here’s a peek:

Warehouse 13, Drop Dead Diva Renewed! Leverage Adds Two!

Two of our new favorite shows, SyFy’s Warehouse 13 and Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva, have been renewed for a second season by their respective networks. Meanwhile, TNT is so happy with Leverage’s performance that they’ve added more episodes to the order for the current season.

Warehouse 13 is SyFy’s most watched show, averaging 3.7 million viewers a week. Almost 50% of those viewers are women, quite a significant change from SyFy’s normal demo. The network ordered 13 new episodes to air next summer, but says there’s a chance that the number of episodes will increase in future seasons.

Lifetime’s new show, Drop Dead Diva, has been a strong performer for the network. The show has averaged 2.6 million viewers so far in its first season, and in its most recent airing last Sunday, hit a record of more than 3 million viewers. Another thirteen episodes will be coming our way next summer when Drop Dead Diva returns to Lifetime.

Meanwhile, TNT has been so pleased with Leverage’s second season that they’ve ordered two additional episodes to air in September. The new season finale will air Wednesday, September 9. I’d hazard a guess that this means we can expect a third season to be announced soon!

TNT Brings Back “Hawthorne” for Season Two

TNT has issued a press release announcing the second season of Hawthorne starring Jada Pinkett Smith.

TNT has picked up a second season of its hit medical drama HAWTHORNE, starring and executive-produced by Jada Pinkett Smith (The Women, The Matrix trilogy) and created by Emmy winner John Masius (St. Elsewhere, Providence, Dead Like Me). The network has ordered an additional 10 episodes of the character-driven drama, which airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). For its first season, HAWTHORNE is averaging 3.8 million viewers and ranks as ad-supported cable’s #1 entertainment program on Tuesdays among adults 25-54 and women 25-54. The second season is slated to air in 2010. (Continue reading here.)

TNT Invites You To Play With Them

Sometimes the week between new episodes of our favorite shows can feel like a month, especially when the shows are as engaging as Leverage. Fortunately, TNT is helping us pass the time by creating two new online games that run alongside Leverage and new series Dark Blue (the cop drama with hottie Dylan McDermott) with some pretty awesome prizes available for those who play.

Leverage HQ

Leverage on TNT

Last season, fans of Leverage proved themselves worthy of being part of the team in the “Get Ready to Get Even” game at LeverageHQ.com. This season, Nate (Hutton) needs their help in an all-new promotional game. Nate’s laptop, which contains valuable, extremely secret information about each person on the team, has been stolen. In the life of a con artist, information is the deadliest weapon. The Leverage team needs game players to recover the files, documents and photos on the laptop by completing a series of missions. Those who accomplish each task will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a multi-city trip to become an expert in the art of the con. One lucky winner will visit Paris, London and New York, sites of some of history’s greatest capers.

DARK BLUE: Undercover

Dark Blue on TNT

Viewers will learn there is a fine line between going under and crossing over as they engage in a new promotional online game for Dark Blue. At DarkBlueUndercover.com, game players will become members of an elite undercover squad run by Carter Shaw (McDermott). Each player will get a false identity and weekly missions to bring down a gun-running ring. The challenges will force players to make some of the difficult decisions that undercover cops face. Based on these decisions, players will either get caught by the group they are trying to infiltrate; get “flipped” and become seduced by a life of crime; or go deeper undercover. At the end of 10 weeks, those who have taken the challenge will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a trip undercover in Los Angeles with VIP access to the hottest clubs and restaurants, a private helicopter tour of the Sunset strip and a ride with a former undercover LAPD officer.

Ready to kill some (more) time online? And win fabulous prizes? Enter the worlds of Leverage and Dark Blue, and let us know if you win big! New episodes of Leverage and Dark Blue air tonight on TNT beginning at 9/8c.

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